PHCC launches 8 RSCs to offer specialist services

Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has launched eight Regional Specialised Centres (RSCs) to combine several specialist services.These centres include Al Thumama, Rawdat Al Khail, Leabaib, Muaither, Qatar University, Umm Slal and Al Wajbah health centres. The upcoming Al Mashaf New Health Centre will also be operating as a Specialised Regional Centre after the opening in 2021. Each of these centres will accept internal medical referrals of patients from other health centres according to their geographical locations. These specialised services include ophthalmology, optometry, dermatology, ENT, audiology, mental health, and memory clinics. This project will allow PHCC to increase the number of clinics in morning and evening shifts and provide patients with easier access to their desired services at the time they need. Reducing the waiting time of appointments at secondary care will be another advantage.Moreover, physiotherapy service will be available at 11 health centres on daily basis in both morning and evening shifts. However, during weekend, it will be available only on Saturday morning shift.Dr Samya al-Abdallah, executive director, operations, said that PHCC is currently working on introducing a cardiology clinic. This clinic will be added to PHCC’s range of specialised services to provide the best diversified package of services in the region to all Qatar community members. PHCC has launched a pilot for new specialised cardiology clinic in Leabaib and Rawdat Al Khail health centres. This clinic will take care of people with cardiovascular disease and associated morbidities within primary care aspects of first diagnose, referral, follow-up of treatment, and providing consultation.This new service is a result of the continuous joint co-operation between Primary Health Care Corporation and the Heart Hospital, which is part of the greater “Better Together” programme between PHCC and Hamad Medical Corporation. The cardiology clinic will provide a preventive service to patients and community members by providing comprehensive awareness to all patients about cardiovascular diseases, how to avoid all related risk factors and how to deal with symptoms if they occur. The PHCC cardiology clinic will receive cases of stable cardiac patients who are predominantly discharged recently from Heart Hospital or other hospitals. The clinic will continue monitoring their case and provide all necessary consultations and follow-up for their cases. The clinic will also receive new patients who were referred from a general practitioner or family physician with an initial diagnose, further investigate their cases, confirm them, and then do any necessary urgent referral to the Heart Hospital for the cases that need immediate treatment. The plan is to gradually roll out the cardiology clinic to other selected health centres, the date and the selected health centres will be announced in near future.